SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT INTERVENES IN NON-PAYMENT OF LORETO'S PURSE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 17 Apr 2015
The South African government has intervened in an effort to resolve the issue of the non-payment of light flyweight champion Rey Loreto's $40,000 purse for his rematch against former champion Nkosinathi Joyi whom he knocked out in the first round in a fight card in East London.
The New Standard/boxingmirror.com has been in touch with IBO president Ed Levine who, at our request, initiated an investigation into the non-payment of Loreto's purse as well as Jetly Purisima who lost a ten round decision in a bout on the undercard.
Levine had set a meeting of the IBO Championship Committee scheduled for Monday but informed us that the meeting had been postponed "based upon the information provided by the promoter Sipatho Handi that the national government has intervened and further assurances that all payments will be finalized by promoter Handi by April 17, 2015" which would be April 18 in Manila.
The IBO president told Handi "I hope this matter can be successfully remedied to avoid IBO sanctions and other legal remedies."
In an earlier letter to president Levine, the promoter stated "Experiencing payment delays from the Eastern Cape Provincial Government for two weeks after the tournament was held, I was left with no option but to elevate the matter to the South African National Government for intervention with a view to expediting the payment by the Eastern Cape Provincial Government."
Handi said "I took that painful but necessary decision on
Wednesday, April 08, 2015, not to back stab my provincial government but as a means of addressing in the main the plight of boxers who fought in my tournament. The National Government having read the report I wrote and having liste ed to my oral representation, took a decision to intervene on the matter
in the following manner."
1. To advise Boxing South Africa not to take any action against the promoter for failure to meet legal obligations which include payment of boxers' purses, payment of allowances of ring officials assigned in the tournament, payment of sanction fees.
2. To ask the promoter to advise overseas boxers who participated in the tournament that even South African boxers who participated in the tournament have not yet been paid.
3. To ask the promoter to advise world sanctioning bodies like IBO & WBF that the matter is now in the hands of the national government and that every step will be taken to ensure that payment will be made to the promoter before Friday, April 17, 2015 so that the promoter would in return make payment to all those who provided services prior, during and after the world championship boxing tournant held on Sunday, March 22, 2015. All the payment would be done by the promoter to all service providers on Friday, April 17, 2015.
The promoter said that "Given the above guarantees, and given the fact that BSA has already been approached by the relevant National Government Officials to give them one week only within which to resolve this matter, I have no doubt in my mind that the National Government will act on the commitment they have made to BSA and to me as a promoter of the tournament. I am
therefore, pleading with the IBO President and IBO Championship Committee to give me only one week, ending on Friday, April 17, 2015, before any sanction is imposed on me. I know and understand that I have made similar undertakings in the past but failed to honour them, but this time around, I have taken an oath
to ensure that the commitment made by the National Goverment will be carried out without fail."
Photo: Loreto (R) knocks out Joyi.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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